Can I Keep You?
by xJanzx
Summary: Rack fic, beginning from where tonight's EE left off
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: This fic starts off where tonight's EE left of. The italics are either thoughts and memories and this is just gonna be a teensy fic, i think anyway, with almost two stories running parallel. Enjoy!**

**Can I Keep You?**

Ronnie stood outside of the hospital, her trembling hands tightly holding onto the sheets of paper she had brought to Jack. They were finally getting somewhere, making progress and then . . . She let out a deep breath, a lone tear trickling down her porcelain cheek. Hastily, she brushed it away.

What right did she have to cry? She wasn't the one that was stuck in a hospital bed, wires attached to every part of her exposed skin, not even able to talk properly. That wasn't happening to her. She had no right to cry.

But she still did.

The teardrops continued to fall, her heart weeping in the misery that shrouded her like a blanket. Every day, every moment, it followed her. And whenever she had the chance of feeling the sun on her face, it would cover her once again, repelling the warmth of the light and forcing her into it's icy embrace.

And other times, she would run to it; seeking cold comfort. Terrified and unsure, she would retreat to what she knew. Even if it meant breaking her own heart all over again.

Ronnie scoffed, wiping away the moisture from her cheeks.

_How do you break a heart that's already broken?_

Looking over her shoulder, she watched the entrance of the hospital.

He was right there, inside that building. The man that had stolen her heart nearly three years ago. The man that refused to give it back. He was right there.

"_You always run from me," Jack murmured, cupping the side of Ronnie's face as his arms curled around her body. _

_Ronnie sighed, her head laid across Jack's chest. Everything hurt that day, her head full of too many things, too much information, too many emotions. She had seen her mum. Her mother. The woman that had given her life. The same woman that had abandoned her when she needed her the most. _

"_I know," Ronnie whispered, closing her eyes and surrendering to this moment of peace._

_She could feel his heart beating beneath his chest, strong and steady. Constant. Just like him._

_She felt him move slightly, shifting on the sofa of the office. His hand gently brushing away the tears that she hadn't even felt fall. _

"_Please, stop running, darling."_

Ronnie felt her breath hitch in her throat, her chest shuddering with the memory of that day. He was right, of course he was right. She had spent the last twenty years running and now . . . now it was like she couldn't stop. She didn't know how to simply lay her hands by her side and stop moving. Stop running. Stop fighting.

She didn't know how to do that.

"_What happened, Ron?" Jack asked. "What did she say?"_

_Ronnie shook her head against his chest, strands of her blonde hair getting stuck to his dark blue shirt. "Nothing. . . Nothing important."_

"_Really? That why you're like this?" He questioned, the doubt evident in his voice. He'd seen the way she had crumbled as soon as they had gotten back to the club, how she had wept and clung onto him as if he was the only thing that could keep her from falling into the abyss. "She said nothing, yeah?"_

_Ronnie shook her head once again, clamping down on her bottom lip to stop the tremors. "No, she said . . ."_

_She faltered, unable to say the words. She closed her eyes, her forehead furrowing with the strain of trying to block out the memories, the past, everything. _

"_What did she say, Ron?"_

Ronnie pushed down the wave of nausea that rose up within her, instead focusing her every thought on the next moment. Turning around, Ronnie walked up the ramp leading to the entrance before passing through it. She wasn't running anymore. Not unless there was someone to run to.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: This fic starts off where tonight's EE left of. The italics are either thoughts and memories and this is just gonna be a teensy fic, i think anyway, with almost two stories running parallel. Enjoy!**

Ronnie looked through the window into Jack's room. The machines monitoring him beeping regularly, letting her know that he was okay. Or at least as okay as he could be. Her fingers pressed against the glass, needing to be closer to him. To _feel_ him one more time.

It had been so long and that night, that night she had honestly thought she had lost him.

_Ronnie gulped, trying to force herself to say the words, but they kept sticking in her throat. She exhaled, hoping that the words would tumble out with the breath. But they wouldn't. She had to do it, she had to be the one to say it._

_To say the words that had bounced around in her mind relentlessly for the last few weeks. The words that had shaken the soil around something that was buried so long ago. It peeked out from the dirt, glinting in the sunlight as the rays bounced off of it. She could see it._

_And she really wished she couldn't._

_"She told me . . . what he did to her."_

_Jack stayed silent, knowing that now wasn't the time for questions, for interruptions. He felt a sudden shift in the air between them, it was heavy with untold secrets. The air was full of it, like an invisible smog that pressed against his throat, choking them both._

_"She told me . . . he raped her."_

The sound of a door clicking jolted Ronnie out of her thoughts. "Is he, erm," she cleared her throat. "Is he okay now?"

The nurse nodded her head, a kind smile lifting the corners of her lips. "Yes. He's sleeping now-"

"Sleeping?" Ronnie asked, frowning. "I only, I only left him a few minutes ago."

"He was in a lot of pain, the morphine . . . it can take a lot out of a patient, especially after what Mr Branning's been through."

Ronnie nodded, the thought of Jack being in that much making her heart want to burst from her chest and settle over his, heal his injuries so he didn't have to hurt anymore. "Right," she murmured.

_Jack said nothing once again. He felt her move off of his chest, the warmth of her body instantly dissipating from his skin. His heart instantly missed her, and even though he could see her right in front of him, his heart needed to feel her._

_Her eyes searched his face, scrutinising his every feature. "Do you believe her?" He asked._

_Ronnie's glance flicked downwards to their entwined hands. "Would you?" She enquired, her voice thick with unshed tears. "Believe her, I mean?"_

_"I-I don't know her, Ron . . ."_

_"Neither do I," she replied, her voice soft, steeped in a sadness so potent it was almost a physical pain._

"You can go in and sit with him, if you'd like?"

Ronnie mutely nodded. She tried to smile, say 'thank you' at least, but she couldn't. The nurse seemed to understand and simply smiled at her before retreating to the nurses' station.

_She makes it look so easy, smiling._


End file.
